Cyprus awaits UN decision on suspicious Iranian ship

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Cyprus says it will decide what to do with a ship suspected of carrying arms from Iran to Gaza once the UN rules on whether it broke a ban on Iranian arms exports. Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou said Wednesday that Cyprus is awaiting United Nations guidance on whether the ship's cargo breached sanctions barring Iran from sending arms abroad. Cyprus has given the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee a report on the cargo of the Cyprus-flagged Monchegorsk after conducting two inspections of the ship. Suspicions that the ship was taking arms to Hamas in Gaza were raised by the United States, which stopped the ship at sea and said it found artillery shells and other arms. The ship remains anchored off the island nation's southern port of Limassol.